Abuse and Misuse of IMs for group messages and event SPAM

My two cents...I run events almost daily. We send out a group notice to several groups related to our sims the day before with a good description of the event. We have actually been lumping a few together...maybe 2 or 3 days of events into one notice in order to minimize the number of these that get sent out. At the time of the event itself, i send a group im to each group as well as a msg to the region...short, one sentence...come on down...kinda thing. I have never once had anyone complain to me about the number of group im's sent out...apparently the ones who didnt like it figured out how to leave the group and everyone stays happy.

I personally have left MANY more groups for excessive group notices than for excessive im's. This is because when i am creating, i can ignore an im, but i cant ignore the giant group notice window that pops up that i then have to close. I know many people who feel this same way. So, i think it is a mistake to assume that no one wants group ims or that it is somehow spamming. For many of us it is preferable to group notices.

I also think it is grossly underestimating the intelligence of the masses to say that people dont understand that group im's are for...well....group im's. No one had to explain that to me and i figured it out just fine. What i do find interesting is that someone would think they would be for something other than a group instant message.

As for AR's. I think it is a complete waste of LL's time and resources for folks to AR things that are not a HUGE issue and clearly against the TOS. Personally i have completed ONE ar in the year ive been in SL. I certainly have banned more naked people, people with weapons etc. than that. But, i give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they are just idiots....but NOT something that LL needs to get involved in. I think the reason why responses to ar's take so long is because LL has to sift through these low level personal concerns and it delays them getting to the big stuff. If someone has repeatedly had an issue with another, has exhausted all avenues of resolution, or there is an immediate threat...i say ar them. Otherwise, send a linden a note with your comments, show up at a linden's office hours and speak or in another way express your displeasure with the descriptions, TOS, rules or whatever. I see not being happy about a group im as being FAR different than someone griefing a sim to the point that no one can get in it for hours. In the im instance, there are many ways to get out of the situation and still have a perfectly acceptable SL experience. In the griefing situation there is not.

Again...just my two cents. I do think that folks in SL seem to be getting AR, DCMA, TOS, COPYRIGHT, TRADEMARK crazy lately. And having been on the receiving end of some of this overzealous crap...i personally would like to see people chill.

I have to say that that thought crossed my mind a few minutes ago, when I read her most recent very lengthy post - I could scarcely believe that someone actually wrote what I was reading. She writes so well that she clearly has a good degree of intelligence, but what she writes is so silly that it truly beggars belief. I could understand a new person finding those objections, but not someone who has been around since 2004 (she stated 2004, although her join date here is 2006). It certainly looks like a wind-up, but I'm at a loss to fathom why she would do it.

d'oh!

It's possible. But I think she's sincere - I certainly hope so, since if it *was* bait, I fell for it hook like and sinker!

There are various ways to cope with griefing, least of all the ultimate "tp somewhere else" solution.

I can't actually recall a single griefing in close to two years of SL while I lost count of the number of spam messages in just the last month.

Both griefing and spam violate the CS (although not in the OP's case) and both make for perfectly valid ARs.

kitty, let me clarify

I meant that a group im for the purpose of group events is not a violation of TOS and is not something to be ar'd. And i have seen several occurances of griefing that shut down an entire sim for a long period of time...as the sim owner you can bet i would be ar'ing it and it is most certainly something i cant stop if i cant get into my own sim.

Huh? zzzzzzzzzz

use W-Hat's, it's the largest, most complete database anyway.

http://w-hat.com/name2key

Such a spectacular first post! Welcome to the forums, Charles, and I can't wait to hear you weigh in on the other topics of the day!

I think he's about summed up this one!

go to "Groups"--->mark the the group you dont want to recieve any notices from---> click on "Info"-Button ---> select "General" from the opening window ---> un-mark "Recieve group notices" at the right bottom and taddaaaa: silence... BUT you will not get ANY notices (except group IM's) and dont wonder if you arent up-to-date about whats going on in the group and dont blame the owner if you dont get any notices

Let's make this simple: If you join a club's VIP group you will get IM announcements. That is what the group is used for. Most clubs do this so complaining about it is rather silly.

There are also several store update groups that do this to prevent the loss of an announcement. Once again: You joined the group and therefore gave permission for all further IMs from that group. There is no such thing as spam for a store or club group - not when it comes from the owner.

Dearie? The Lindens set up SL as a virtual world - not a business. Your real world business experience means nothing at all in the current context. as to looking for a reason from those who tell you your opinion is wrong?

Do your own homework and drop the preconceived notions of how a group should be run.

The only explanation you require is this: You joined a Commercial Group. The Terms of Service allows a group Owner to do whatever they want with their Group - Period. By joining said group you gave consent for any and all communications from the owner - by Announcement AND Group IM. It is that simple.

There are no arguments to the contrary: You are simply looking to cause trouble.

i haven't read most of the thread so i may be way off on my post here .

if i join a group i pretty much know there are going to be notices and sometimes people join groups to drop in their adds for their buisnesses..if the group allows it thats fine..most that don't allow it end up kicking the person from the group..

the thing that gets to me and i will AR someone in a second is if i start getting personal IM's and it is from someone in my group i may be in and have never met this person before..
I'll AR them right then and there every time..

it's one thing when it is a group channel but calling me at home because you got my name out of a group really pisses me off

In some cases that's more than a little harsh. I've had to resort to personally IM'ing people who needed help in product groups because of the "error communicating with" bug. Rather than let them think I've abandoned the conversation, I'll look 'em up in search and take it to IM.

i was meaning if someone who is just a member like me starts to im me with adds..
if it is for reasons of joining the group and i need help or someome im's me for help or the group channle is not working and they needed to use confrence..that is fine..but when a person that has just joined the group to get the list of people in the group and send out mass im's to each person in the group for their own personal club or store or whatever that has nothning to do with the group..those are the ones i will AR

there is nothing more irritating than when i am in my sim building and relaxed concentrating on somethign and the flow is broken by getting one of these im's..it's also against the TOS

Ah, I agree there.

I get snarky about blind group invites too.

i used to be so busy when i was a club manager awhile back that i would get tons of friendship adds..so i would just click them to add to my list of friends..i loved talking to the customers.that was why i was so busy most of the time lol..but once in awhile in the friendship invites would be a tp and i would click the yes button and be ported to whoever sent the tp..
god i hated when that happened..i would just not say a word then get back to the club and pull them from my list.
god i hated those
they look just like a freaking friendship add..they should make tp's red lol

hmm..

maybe we didnt understand the original post?

group owner sends group ims to announce group information.

katya was complaining that the group owner did not use the 'annoucement' channel. by which we mostly presumed she meant 'group notices.'

but what if she meant 'group ims' when she said 'annoucement' channel? what if the group owner used PERSONAL ims to group members -- or conference friend ims (possibly?) to spam group messages to INDIVIDUALS?

okay, that would be something to complain about.


i once joined a group that i thought was an educational group, but the owner kept spamming it with annoucements about other events on the sim -- dances, concerts, whatever. further, the group leader friended me when i asked about the class that was supposed to be there (it was apparently pre-empted by two other dance/concert events). she then proceeded to use friend conference ims (not group chat!) to bug people to come over to the events, going on NOW! youre MISSING IT! HURRY! ...several times.

my solution was simple: leave group. un-friend group owner. solved my problem.

When I join a group, I do so knowing fully that the group IM will be just that, for the group. Sometimes, it's a chat group, where people discuss ideas and theories,and at other times, it's a club/shop that will announce events from time to time.

If I find either annoying/bothersome/etc, I simply leave the group. I've done that in the past and will probably do that in the future.

Only time you'll hear me complain is when an idiot joins the group just to spam event notices/etc, that aren't related to the group. Then it's mute for the idiot on my end and possible ejection of idiot from the group. No skin off anyone's noses.

If I joined a *rental* group, I can see getting a bit testy if the landowner uses the group to promo her club.

The option of "just quit the group" isn't so viable when that means you can't leave stuff rezzed.

1: You joined the group, the group owner was simply advertising an event or sending a message pertaining to the sim that the group owners own which they are paying for with thier money...NOT yours.

Thats like you going to a free concert for cancer care and complaining that the announcer was advertising more events for cancer care aid....sheesh?

2: You dont like the fact the group owner and sim owner is advertising events in the group? then LEAVE the group. Or you can whine to LL who quite frankly have bigger fish to fry in this bug ridden landscape called Second Lag.


3: You say you have "RL" experience or other such "im gonna bring RL into this cause i dont have a solid arguement" stuff. So far, we have heard only one side of this arguement...namely yours.

For a fair and balanced view i would invite the original sim owner into this thread to give their side of the storey...thats of course unless you want Linden Labs to work off of only YOUR recomendations....but then that wouldnt be "RL" like would it? Accuser and the accused?

You gotta watch out for those blind groups.

P2

WOW! And I thought being noobdozed was bad... I'm staying outta those groups. (>_<

I did that with with my rental group. I was up for auction, so I sent a notice out and a few people came along to bid for a date with a nice friendly landlord One girl, who was in the group because she was living with the tenant, came along as well, and she bid up to 100,000L on a guy. At one point, she outbid herself - massively. She won, of course, and straight away walked up onto the stage, declared the guy not worth 100k, and asked for the next one to be put up. As expected, she didn't pay what she'd bid - she was either a nutcase, or drunk - or both.

A few days later, she IMed me (probably the first direct contact we'd had). She claimed that her b/f's birthday was coming up in a day or so, and asked to borrow a few thousand to get him a present. She didn't get any money from me, of course.

WITCH